Orange leaders back push to upgrade convention center

Orange County commissioners Tuesday largely backed Mayor Teresa Jacobs' push to increase spending on the upkeep of the convention center and showed little appetite to divert money from that work to get renovations started on the aging Citrus Bowl.

Commissioners agreed with Jacobs' suggestion that the $175 million in planned Citrus Bowl upgrades should be scaled back or broken into smaller, cheaper phases that would get the work started.

"Come back with a revised plan that doesn't have the whole blue sky," said Commissioner Fred Brummer.

In recent months, stadium boosters have lobbied Jacobs to take advantage of the recent rebound in tourist tax revenues to get the bowl renovations moving again, after a three-year delay.

Because of the recent recession, bed-tax collections nose-dived. The dropoff stunted the main funding source for a $1.1 billion downtown arts and sports venues plan that Orlando and Orange County leaders agreed to in 2007, a blueprint that included a $383 million performing arts center and $487 million Amway Center.

With the downturn, the city of Orlando also endured a drop in property tax values, which has handcuffed its ability to borrow money for the venue projects. That left the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts to break its project into two smaller phases to break ground last year.

Jacobs has suggested that the Citrus Bowl may have to adopt that phased-construction idea, and also look to the private sector for funding help.

Tuesday's meeting allowed Jacobs and Comptroller Martha Haynie to make the case for increased investments in the convention center. Last fiscal year, Orange spent $10.6 million in tourist taxes to maintain the facility. Tentative plans earmark $30 million next year for those upgrades.

Commissioners Ted Edwards and Brummer both agreed that more convention center investments are needed, since it's annual economic impact is up to $2.2 billion. The Citrus Bowl, whose major events include the Capital One Bowl, the Champs Sports Bowl and Florida Classic, which generate more than a projected $110 million annaully, hotel leaders estimate.

Commissioner Tiffany Moore Russell said there was no interest among county leaders to take on debt for the Citrus Bowl themselves, but since the city is not able to take it on, Orange leaders are being "placed in a corner as if we're the bad guy."

But Moore Russell said the stadium challenges can't get in the way of the county's core asset: the convention center. "We have to take care of our bread and butter," she said.

Commissioners John Martinez and Scott Boyd offered the most sympathy for the stadium upgrades, but both expressed only a vague desire to get the stalled project moving and stressed its importance to the community and as a draw for tourists.

"We need to find a way to work with the city," Martinez said. "It's too important to the community."